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Aug 7, 2014 at 12:01 AMAug 7, 2014 at 11:39 PM

Between now and Dec. 6, you are going to hear a lot about teacher salaries.

By Michael GormanEditorial Page Editor

Between now and Dec. 6, you are going to hear a lot about teacher salaries.There will be sob stories galore about how low Terrebonne’s teacher salaries are.How low are they? According to one estimate, they are 47th out of the state’s 66 school districts.The dangers of low teacher salaries are undeniable.They can push good, talented teachers elsewhere in pursuit of more money.They can send the message that teachers are not a public priority. More accurately, they can be definitive proof that teachers and their salaries are not high priorities.They can provide an incentive for prospective teachers to enter other fields.They can urge current teachers to leave the field of education in hopes of better compensation elsewhere.They can hasten the decision to retire.Unfortunately, these are tight times. With the state seemingly uninterested in improving education, local districts have seen little in new state money over the past several years. What money has come from the state has been more than accounted for by rising expenses, leaving districts with few options.One option is raising taxes to provide more local money, which can be used to bump up teacher pay.The Terrebonne Parish School Board floated a proposal last year that would have more than quadrupled the district’s property taxes. The resulting windfall would have been spent on a vague “plan” for renovating school buildings and giving every school employee a raise.Voters roundly rejected the proposal after the local business community pointed out some of the drawbacks of a huge property tax increase.The School Board got part of the message: Voters don’t want higher property taxes.So the board has come back, this time with a proposed sales tax increase.Convinced that voters don’t really care that much about the state of the school buildings, Terrebonne’s education leaders now just want to give everyone raises.You might notice that I didn’t say they want to give teachers raises. They want to give all their employees raises. That’s nice.The school system wants to increase your taxes to give teachers a raise in the hopes that having better-paid teachers will result in better-educated children who turn into better-trained and better-prepared adults.What isn’t as clear is how giving bus drivers, cafeteria workers, secretaries, nurses and administrators more money is going to improve the educational outcomes of our kids.The answer, if the school honchos are honest, is that they don’t hope to improve education by handing out raises like candy. They hope that giving everyone a raise will get everyone to vote for the tax hike.That isn’t what I would call sound fiscal policy.If you have to pay people to vote for something, it probably lacks the merit necessary to stand on its own.Are there data to suggest that we are having a hard time attracting or keeping bus drivers or cafeteria workers?If we continue to pay non-teaching school employees at their present pay, will your children’s educations suffer in any way?These are questions that must be answered before the school system can argue it has carefully planned for this latest requested tax increase.Lest you think me cold-hearted, I don’t begrudge anyone wanting to make more money. I wish the bus drivers and administrators all the best in their efforts to make more money. I just don’t think that paying people more money is an essential function of government — particularly a public agency that’s so strapped for cash it has to beg voters for a tax increase just to pay its teachers a competitive wage.Here is what I propose: If you want to give teachers a raise so more qualified teachers stay and our schools are improved, do it.If you want to give everyone else who works for the schools a raise, you’re going to have to make a solid, convincing case that doing so will result in a proportionate improvement in educational outcomes. I’m not sure how paying the nurse or the janitor more money is going to raise ACT scores or graduation rates. Unless and until we have that information, giving those raises simply isn’t a public priority — and it should be before a public agency asks for more tax money.Next week: Why not every teacher deserves a raise.

Editorial Page Editor MichaelGorman can be reached at 448-7612 or by e-mail at mike.gorman@dailycomet.com.

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